Nobel laureate María Corina Machado returns to Venezuela after months in exile

The announcement

Nobel laureate María Corina Machado announced on X on Sunday, 25 October 2026, that she was back in Venezuela, months after she left the country secretly in December 2025 to travel to Norway for the Nobel Peace Prize. Her post was brief and gave no details about how she had crossed back or where she had been since. Edmundo González, the opposition's candidate in the presidential election held on 28 July 2024, who is in exile in Spain, confirmed the return and said she was on Venezuelan soil.

Her post read:

I'm here. With you.

González said he too would return to the country soon, adding that the day was important for Venezuelans.

Today is a very important day for Venezuelans. Our sovereign voice returns with her to lead and guide this process!

Where she is and how she got back

The Guardian reported that social media footage showed Machado in Barquisimeto, the capital of Lara state, about 220 miles west of Caracas, surrounded by supporters in a church called the Sanctuary of the Divine Shepherdess. El Mundo reported that she had reappeared in a Catholic church in Lara state. The Guardian said it was not immediately clear how she had made the journey, and Spiegel reported that neither she nor González gave details about the circumstances of the return. Vente Venezuela, her party, told Le Temps that she had made at least seven failed attempts to come back, while the Guardian put the count at more than half a dozen. Le Temps and Spiegel both reported that she had been living in exile in Panama before the return.

Background to her exile

Spiegel reported that Machado went into hiding after the disputed 2024 presidential election, in which Venezuelan authorities had barred her from running. Nicolás Maduro declared himself the winner while the opposition claimed the victory for González, and the repression that followed killed 28 people, according to Spiegel. She left the country in December 2025 for Norway, but Spiegel reported she arrived too late for the ceremony in Oslo, and her daughter accepted the award on her behalf. On 3 January 2026, US forces captured Maduro, according to SAPO, and his vice president Delcy Rodríguez took power as interim president. The Guardian described Machado and Rodríguez as arch political rivals and said the return was unlikely to please her.

Protests and reactions

On Thursday, 22 October, protests in several cities demanded presidential elections, the release of political prisoners and Machado's return, according to SAPO. Spiegel put the crowd in Caracas at about 2,000 people and reported further demonstrations in Táchira state on the Colombian border. The Guardian reported that the Trump administration had reportedly opposed her return, fearing it would complicate its relationship with Rodríguez. US President Donald Trump told reporters in Washington that he hoped she was safe, according to El Mundo. Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of Spain's PP, welcomed the return and wrote that democracy must always win, while SAPO reported that Rodríguez had not yet commented on it. Machado has also reiterated her call for presidential elections in 2027, according to SAPO.